Farewell Jan Wijnen

By: Jan Wijnen

After more than 42 years, I concluded my career at ELECTROMACH on March 31. In April this year I celebrated my 65th birthday and I officially retired.

With pleasure I look back on my career at ELECTROMACH, which started in 1967 as a Junior Sales Engineer and also as ELECTROMACH’s first employee. In 1983 I joined the board of directors and 10 years later, in 1993, I promoted to General Director. In 1998 the shares of ELECTROMACH were sold to the R.STAHL AG by Hans Roerink.

The Ex-poster, a useful tool!

Are you familiar with the classifications that apply to explosion proof products covered by the ATEX Directive? This becomes quite difficult if you consider the new Equipment Protection Level (EPL's), Exn Zone 2 protection methods and methodologies for non-electrical equipment (such as mechanical and optical equipment).

The ATEX Directive remains a challenging subject. Therefore Electromach published a new Ex-poster covering key issues about electric and non-electrical equipment for use in a hazardous area.

The poster also easily explains the classifications and presents all protection methods that exist, the zones, the gas groups, temperature ranges and EPL's.

CMP certificate for ELECTROMACH and STAHL sales force

The sales force of Electromach and STAHL NV received from the European Sales Manager, Kathleen Kearns, of CMP Products, a certificate for completing the course for installation of Exd flameproof cable glands. We are happy to announce that our sales force is now officially entitled to give installation training.

At the CMP Products factory in Cramlington (Northumberland UK) our sales team was specialized in installing flameproof cable glands, particularly the types PX2K/PXSS2K.

Mounting flameproof cable glands has to be performed precisely and it requires some time. The compound in the cable gland has to be properly cured before the cable gland can be connected.

STAHL 'Ex' event in Antwerp, April 15

By: Omer Decock (STAHL N.V.)

On April 15, STAHL N.V.’s event, the STAHL ‘Ex’ dag, was held at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Antwerp. Present among the numerous guests present were engineering agencies, end users, manufacturers and installers. As usual, the event consisted of an exhibition of explosion proof products, solutions and presentations by various guest speakers.

Wout Moelard, chairman of the Dutch Standardization Commission NEC 31, gave a general lecture on the development of standards.Participants in the standards committees determine how and how fast a standard evolves. Whether it relates to explosion proof equipment or anything else. The greater the pressure from the industry, the quicker a standard can be deployed following new trends. This is presuming that the industry is represented in the standards committee. That is rather a problem in Belgium.

Economic signal in hazardous areas

In addition to tried-and-tested models with halogen and xenon flash lamps, R. STAHL's 6162 line of signal beacons now also includes energy-saving LED-based continuous beacons and rotating beacons. With little self-heating, these new models are suitable for use in Ex zones 1, 2, 21, and 22. They fulfill the requirements of temperature class T6 and surface temperature for dust explosions protection T80 °C, and come with an integrated "increased safety" wiring space. Thanks to innovative, bright LED technology with a power consumption of merely 60-200 mA, the maintenance-free lamps reach a lifetime of 50,000 hours.

Succes Story

Explosion proof control panel for a steam turbine located in a hazardous environment (outdoors), Zone 2

Exp solution

An Exp solution was chosen due to the required instruments such as a Woodward turbine control. Due to the size of the system, the Exp solution was preferred. In this case, the Exp solution had more advantages than an Exd solution.

The control panel meets the requirement for a zone 2 environment and is ATEX certified Zone 2 (Exp IIA, T3).

The control panel consists of a sheet steel cabinet with a fluorescent lighting fixture mounted on the roof. The panel is equipped with various instruments, such as vibration and temperature monitoring equipment, the turbine speed control system, turbine overspeed protection system, digital indicators, pilot lights, switches and pushbuttons.

Additional ATEX audits are to be expected

The regulation body has announced it will increase labor inspections in 2010 at companies dealing in hazardous environments. The stated European objective is to reduce the occupational accidents with 25% by 2012. This plan has been forwarded to the second house of the parliament by Minister Donner of Social Affairs.